TRAVEL | gruissan

Oh boy, Gruissan was easily one of my favourite places we visited. It was quite clear from the beginning.

Cream coloured buildings, terracotta roofs, laid back vibes, and balmy beach breezes.

In hindsight, I wish we planned ahead so we could've stayed more than one night. I'd return in a heartbeat. If anyone reading this is planning on taking a trip to South France. Please make Gruissan a priority :)




Some candid, but very instagramm-y shots Roman took of me at the Château de Gruissan.
Had a great time painting the beautiful pink buildings.








I love the blue and white colour palettes of the buildings by the French coastal towns.
One of my favourites was this one that I shot the walk to Gruissan Plage. Reminds me of ones
you see in vintage postcards.



The entrance to our B&B.

TRAVEL | spain to france

Strangest part of our trip was probably the time we stayed at El Vilosell, an incredibly small village located in the province of Lleida. We arrived in the late afternoon after half a day of exploring and hiking hoping to dig into a big carb-y meal, but to our disappointment we couldn't find any restaurants, cafes, or supermarkets. Not that they were closed by the time we got there - there were none! The closest restaurant was at least 20km away at the next town, The only place of gathering appeared to be the only bar in the city a few meters from our hotel. Since we were low on snacks and fruit, bar food was our only option, and turns out they served a pretty decent pizza. :)

On the bright side, the hotel room we booked was beautiful! And only for 35 euros a night total. We happened to be the only guests that night (I wonder why this town doesn't draw in tourists *cough*) so it felt as if we booked a whole villa instead. My favourite part was the garden.





The drive through Andorra was crazy scary. It was such a shock to go from sunshine to snowy
mountains, complete with fog. We could hardly see the road beyond 30 meters. On an additional note,
I wouldn't really recommend a stop in Andorra, unless you're there to ski in Winter. The shopping
street was mediocre at best and the overall atmosphere was just odd. Like walking through the Vegas
strip on a tuesday or something.

Our first stop in France was Toulouse. I've been wanting to visit Southern France for ages and this roadtrip seemed like the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the famous La Ville Rose, since the weather was all doom and gloom the whole time we were there.

On the bright side, I did get to visit { Fondation Bemberg }, a fine arts museum that houses works from some of my favourite painters.

TRAVEL | pantano de siurana

Traveling by car around Spain was an amazing experience. It gave us the option of traveling to small towns and national parks that would have been difficult to visit otherwise. One of my favourite stops of the trip was Pantano de Siurana, a gorgeous turquoise reservoir surrounded by poppies.

TRAVEL | roadtrip

Last month Roman and I embarked on our annual (if this is only the second time we've done a big trip like this can I still call it an 'annual' thing?) 2 week holiday/roadtip. For the longest time I've had my sights set on going to Portugal again but we booked too late and ticket prices soared.

After some moping around on my end, we settled on traveling to Spain instead. After Roman's big trip to Mexico in November last year he's been very driven to learn Spanish. That feeling of wanting to hold on to a place that's become special to you by learning a language, just for another chance to get your tongue tied over those unfamiliar words again, is a feeling I know all too well.

Anyways, onwards to Spain.

Roman and I have two completely different styles of traveling. While I like planning ahead and optimising time, he enjoys spontaneity and adventure. For this trip we wanted to find a balance between the two in terms of activities but where we decided to go often wasn't planned until the evening before. The only thing we knew before we started was 1. We land in Barcelona 2. We want to go to the Pyrenees then France by way of Andorra 3. We fly back to Berlin from Barcelona 4. We also knew we wanted to drive along the coast at some point.

In the end, our trip looked something like this: Barcelona - Sitges - Gratallops - El Vilosell - Pasarelas de Montfalcó (hiking) - Toulouse - Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Natural Regional Park - Gruissan - Collioure - Fageda d'en Jordà, Olot (hiking) -  Figueras - Cadaqués (hiking) - Olesa de Bonesvalls - Barcelona